New Products: J&J Rushes 'New Viagra' PR

- Jim Edwards

Though there are many months to go before it's approved, last week Johnson & Johnson began positioning dapoxetine hydrochloride as a potential blockbuster to beat Viagra.

The drug, a repurposed antidepressant, is being billed as a treatment for premature ejaculation. The drug extends intercourse time from a humbling two minutes to a still fairly humbling seven minutes, per a J&J-sponsored study. In that study, J&J claims, "wives and girlfriends timed intercourse with a stopwatch over a 12-week period." The company believes PE affects "27-34% of men across all age ranges."

That market is millions more men than are affected by erectile dysfunction, said Peggy Ballman, a rep for Ortho-Urology, Raritan, N.J., the J&J unit that developed the drug. "It's a surprisingly high number, it's more prevalent than ED . . . ED is primarily a problem of aging; PE can affect a man at any age." Ballman added that if the Food & Drug Administration approves it, the drug will be the first PE treatment on the market.

Inevitably, dapoxetine is being compared to Pfizer's Viagra and its

$1.7 billion in annual sales. Ballman declined to discuss the company's marketing plans, though a pr blitz with coverage in the London Daily Telegraph (which called dapoxetine a "wonder drug") has already started. Merrill Lynch analyst Katherine Martinelli bought the hype, hailing the drug as "the new Viagra" in The New York Sun.